Thursday, July 31, 2008

Password, password, who's got the password...

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has a gazillion passwords.

I have one for my network logon, one for email, one for the finance system, one for the human resource system, one for the student info system, and God knows how many for personal use - email, facebook, credit cards, etc.

One big question - Why oh why can't sites be standardized so that you can use the same passwords? I know it's safer to have a bunch but, honestly, it's so hard to keep track of them.

I used to use one word which has been with me since high school. I'd add a number to it if a number was required. I would add an "s" at the end if it was too short. Just recently I came up with a new one which I love.

Now when I log into different accounts, I have to guess which one it is so I go through all the little variations.

My other issue is, just when I get use to my password for the above mentioned (work related), they make me change it!!!

How do you keep track of passwords? Don't even tell me you keep them under your keyboard! LOL I can't believe people still do that. I'm thinking of starting a document and listing them but I'm not sure yet. At the moment they are hidden in a file.

6 comments:

Good rant :)Yes I hate to admit all my passwords have a common theme, and I usually have to try a couple on the ones I don't use regulary.

I must admit when I get desperate and can't seem to get into one of my accounts, I do have them written down- hopefully in a manner that I alone can understand-but unfortunately I think if someone despartly wants to get into your account they will.

count me in on this one ... I have about 5 different passwords for various things. I don't write them down, and yes, about two of these require you to change passwords about every 6 months ... I swear if I get amnesia I'll be a goner! ;-)

I have the same issues and gripes. However, as nice as a standard password would be, that opens us up more to fraud and identity theft, I think. It's definitely "safer" to have different ones for different systems, instead of the same one at every site.

My memory is atrocious, so I do have to write mine down. Not on paper, but I keep them on the computer. Probably not the best way, but it works for me. I make a contact for whatever website or whatever and then in the notes or comments, I document when I signed up, what the site is for, my id, contact email (because I use different ones for different types of things), password, etc. I print that out and we keep a hard copy in the safe. Luckily, no one has ever gotten ahold of my info. Knock on wood, maybe I shouldn't have written this, hahaha!

For my personal logins, I have two different passwords. One that is not at all encrypted or probably even all the tough to figure out for non-sensitive sites -- like for recipe websites or games I play or what have you. I don't change it because I truly don't care if someone "hacks" in there. They can't harm me in any way. For my sensitive accounts -- bills, email, blog, things of that nature -- I use my other password. I don't have to change that one because it is "unguessable" no matter how well you know me. It is a nonsense "word" that holds no meaning to anyone but me & includes numbers as well. It's the perfect encryption. At work, I have to write them down & I carry them in my wallet. I have no choice. You would have to be using my computer at work though in order for them to be of any use & I think people I work with would question *anyone* being on my computer.